Exploring a state college’s dialogic strategies and public engagement on Facebook

Abstract

Technological advances influence the way organizations communicate and build relations with the public. Previous studies have explored digital dialogic communication in different organizational contexts; however, there is a paucity of studies that focus on dialogic communication in public institutions. This current study extends the investigation of online relationship building by exploring how a state college uses Facebook to facilitate dialogic communication with stakeholders. Through quantitative content analysis and key informant interviews, a complete enumeration of Facebook posts from January to December 2020 examined the use of dialogic features within the Facebook profile as well as in-depth interviews with the directors, office heads, and stakeholders. Results showed that the state college used a variety of dialogic internet principles on Facebook. Yet, one-way strategies were still more commonly used. The principle of conservation of visitors and organizational engagement for creating an online dialogue enhances public engagement outcomes of users’ reactions, likes, shares, and comments. Moreover, findings from qualitative data demonstrate that a state college relied on social media more to disseminate information rather than a dialogic and interactive medium for governance.